Pinelake has a coffee shop. We currently use ShopKeep. It is an ipad solution. We have experienced so many problems I would like to change our software.

At this point we do not use the inventory part of ShopKeep. With our current problems I have reached the point where I would rather install an old school register & credit card reader, but this will never fly.

We also have Square and it works quite well. The front end interface is easy to use and intuitive. The back end is robust and easy to modify. We enjoy the reporting functions that are included and if used properly, the system can do inventory control for you as well as give you an on-line portal to sell your goods.

With every silver lining, there is always a cloud. Here are the ones that hang over Square. They take a cut of all of your profits. It’s a bit more expensive than other payment gateways that we have used, but I guess some of that money goes it to keeping the software and features as good as they are. We also have invested quite a bit of money buying the square stands and the chip reader devices. These are also great, but expensive. As our iPads age, we are faced with the problem of having to buy new iPads in the future and also new square stands since the footprint of the iPads seem to change with every release. The iPads of tomorrow will not fit the stands that we have today.

You do not need the Square stands and can get away with buying a cheap iPad stand on the webs for around $20 so the hardware investment can be paired down substantially.

We also use our square account outside of the cafe. We load the App on a mobile iPad and have used it for day of camp payments, concession register at the harvest party, and sometimes will sell merch on it for guest worship artists that don’t have their own POS solution.

We’re also using Square register. We have in our cafe’s, bookstore and thrift store. The only issue I’ve run into is them occasionally disconnecting from the printers, and a reboot of the iPad seems to resolve it. Otherwise they seem to like them and haven’t complained, at least not to me.